THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 26, 22 December 1939, Page 47

THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ

M-G-M's Fantasy Is More Than Mere Child's Play

all those who.have remained faithful to their childhood memories of this American fairy tale, or who have remained Young in Heart, Since I regret to say that this story was omitted from my nursery bookshelf, I must come into the Young in Heart category, for I enjoyed the film immensely. Everybody will soon be making comparisons between The Wizard of Oz and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, so it had better be said from the outset that one was a cartoon and the other isn't, and that comparisons are odious anyway. Both films are fantasy: both are excellent. Actually the Wizard’s nearest relative in screen form was Paramount’s Alice in Wonderland, produced in 1933. Six years make a big difference, and The Wizard of Oz is the last word (for the moment) in whimsical imagination and magical frolic. Those cynics who point to its appearance at the present moment as conclusive evidence of Hollywood's 4 ‘HE Wizard of Oz is dedicated to

escapist tendency are on this occasion sneering up the wrong tree; for The Wizard was begun two years ago, before the world went completely mad. Nevertheless, the escapé from reality which it now offers is doubly welcome. When you see the film you will realise that two years was short enough time in which to create the wonderful Technicolour Land of Oz, with its Emerald City, its Witch’s Castle (like something by Doré), its Yellow Brick Roads winding through Enchanted Forests and fields of poppies, and all the incredible, grotesque, and lovely creatures who dwell in this realm of fantasy. When young Dorothy (Judy Garland), contemplating running away from home, gets picked up in a cyclone and is blown to the other side of the rainbow, she does not know where she it, except that it is "certainly not in Kansas." After encounters most strange, adventures most terrifying, she decides that there is no place like home and returns safely, though by that time she has become Queen of the Munchkin Dwarfs and has won the esteem and affection of the whole Land of Oz by destroying the Wicked Witch of the North (or was it the South?) with a bucket of water. The Witch just melts away when splashed! The film’s most delightful and most ingenious portions are those occupied by the Straw Man (Ray Bolger), the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) and the Tin Woodman (Jack Haley), who accompany Dorothy on her quest for the Great Wizard to ask the way back to Kansas, and subsequently in her campaign against the Wicked Witch and her cohorts of Flying Monkeys, Each of

Dorothy’s queer travelling companions has a boon of his own to ask from the Wizard. The Straw Man, a scarecrow whose collapsible legs are a continuous source of delight, bemoans the fact that he has no brains, only straw; the Tin Woodman (who rusts solid when exposed to rain) wants a _ heart; the Cowardly Lion seeks courage, From the Wizard (who is never what he seems, though easily recognisable as Frank Morgan), each at last gets his heart's desire, plus some shrewd adult¥ philosophy which proves that the film is very much more than mere child’s play. Nearly everything in The Wizard of Oz is clever and amusing, and very little is boring, but the Cowardly Lion is its touch of genius. Poor fellow, he does so desperately want to be brave! He will fight anyone, he boasts, with one hand behind him, standing on one leg; but when Dorothy slaps his face, he collapses in tears, confesses he is nothing but a dandylion. This lion is like the lion of Bottom the Weaver who would "roar you as gently as any sucking dove." Much of the humour of The Wizard of Oz is almost Gilbertian; some of the songs-particularly the Lion’s "King of the For-r-r-est" number — could ‘have come from the same source. Indeed, if Gilbert, Sullivan, Edward Lear, Lewis Carrol, Grimm, Walt Disney, Hollywood, Broadway, and Tin Pan Alley could combine forces, this is what one might expect. But who would have thought of the Horse-of-a-Different-Colour? There is magic in this picture. (Footnote for the ignorant (myself included until I looked it up): The Wizard of Oz was originally written by L. Frank Baum, first published in 1900, sold over @ million copies, ran for 18 months on Broadway in @ stage version, and was made a silent film in 1925. To parents who wonder whether there may not be too many terrors for the Very Young, 1 would say: Try and see. It’s worth the risk.)

G.

M.

Music from the M-G-M production " The Wizard of Oz" will be broadcast by 3YA from 9.25 to 10 p.m. on Christmas Day.